Motivation and Coaching

This week's exercises and learning concepts were very eye-opening for me.  For starters, I found out that I prefer a consensus style of leadership whereas years ago I was more of a direct leader.  I have learned that getting to know individuals and what is important to them is as important as the tasks I assign to team members.  I have learned to empower my direct-reports and allow them to engage and commit to their own workloads using me as their coach and motivator when needed.  I have learned to delegate and am still learning how to not micromanage.  I refer to the Goal Theory in my leadership approach as we are a values-based institution and it is ingrained in my work ethic.  I do provide specific hard goals and try to be realistic in my expectations.  I also try and reward/recognize individuals for work well done.  This is one example of a motivation technique but I am genuine about it and do not give praise for that specific purpose.  I want the individuals on my team to be proud of the work they do not only for themselves but also to know how their work relates to the College as a whole.

However, there is one thing I must do and that is to be more specific when doing annual employee evaluations when it comes to goals for the upcoming year.  We need to develop these goals together with each employee, set timelines and expectations.  And, most importantly, I will need to make people and myself accountable for these goals.  I will need to do this with my boss as well.  I have learned as a follower to listen to my boss for cues on work that might be expected of me, manage ambiguity, and not rely on him to coach and/or motivate me.  I take this into account because of the level at which I serve the College.  I do self-coach and self-motivate rather well.

On a related note, I will now discuss the outcomes of the three self-assessment quizzes I took that had some surprising results.

First, there were no surprises on the team player attitudes assessment quiz.  I have and will always have a strong positive attitude towards being a team member and working cooperatively with others.

Second, I came in at the low end of the average need for recognition and do not require constant reminders that I have done a good job.  What I have learned is that no news is good news.

Now for the third and final assessment on interpersonal skills.  This is where the surprises were revealed.  I took the test by myself and then asked two family members to answer the same questions about me.  The most revealing skill in need of improvement on the checklist is self-confidence. While I think I portray self-confidence, my family members do not. After evaluating all of the results, it has occurred to me that if my self-confidence was in check, some of the items I mention, below, might move off of the list:

I am overly critical
I portray nervous mannerisms in a group setting if I am not comfortable with the content
I am a multi-tasker
I make assumptions about people
I need to learn to get to know people and have them get to know me.
I am indecisive at times and need to get things done that I say I am going to do
I speak too low and too fast
I cannot handle criticism
I am not a good conversationalist and do not participate or listen in unfamiliar conversations
I am too upfront about me and boast too much about myself
I am too serious
I strive for individual attention rather than for the team
I make negative comments about people
I have trouble expressing my feelings
I am too shy and reserved
I tell others what they want to hear rather than the truth
I need to pay more attention to what others are saying
I am not good at getting my point across

The focus on building better communication skills and self-confidence will be included in my personal leadership development plan.  This exercise was extremely helpful by allowing me the opportunity to really look into myself more honestly.